Confederate Minutemen
While the Confederation maintains a large, professional army, it is a purely volunteer force and thus only represents a small fraction of the population of the Confederacy. The Army itself pales in size to that of the Confederate Minutemen, a civilian militia force meant to serve as a reserve force to the Army, meant to assist with disaster relief and bolster the forces of the regular Army in times of crisis. Despite its name, the Confederate Minutemen is a wholly compulsory force, with both men and women required to join at the age of eighteen and serve a full two year tour of duty, after which they will be called up once a week every month. The Minutemen can trace their history back to the days of the original COG Army, in which many of the cities of the COG maintained their own militia units, such as the famous Ephyran Light Infantry, which could be requisitioned by the COG in times of need. Many of these militia units fought with valor and distinction on Emergence Day and the months afterwards, often being used as cannon fodder by regular COG officers. In the aftermath of the Locust War and the reformation of the COG, then-Captain Colin Davis began organizing small groups of armed civilians to protect settlements against wildlife and violent Stranded attacks. As time went on and the human population continued to grow, Davis maintained the importance of well trained auxiliary groups, citing the bravery and devotion of similar units during the Locust War. After the Clayvale Rebellion, now-Colonel Davis continued to develop civilian militias to assist the Army in the event of military reprisals by the Coalition, taking those units already in service in Clayvale and reorganizing them into the first units of the new Confederate Minutemen. The Minutemen would continue to grow as the Confederacy expanded its territory, absorbing Outsider villages and even COG settlements, and would see an absolutely massive expansion following Martizieu's entrance into the Confederacy at the start of the Swarm crisis. Equipment Like the rest of the Army, the Confederate Minutemen utilizes the standard issue armor of the old COG. Unlike the Army, the Minutemen don't make use of the Mark 2 Lancer assault rifle, instead using either the Pendulum Wars-era Mark 1 Lancer or the Locust-made Hammerburst II, of which thousands were recovered during and after the war and ammo is readily available. In addition to this, the Minutemen have access to their own aircraft and vehicle inventories, maintaining both air wings and mechanized units, separate from the regular Army. Following the beginning of the Confederate Armed Forces Modernization Program of 42 A.E., the Minutemen began to replace their Mark 1 Lancers with Mark 2s handed down from the rest of the Army as they upgraded to the new Mark 3 rifle, though this was only temporary, as the Minutemen were eventually slated to also receive the Mark 3 once production of the new rifle caught up to supply demands. Known Units *1st Confederate Minutemen *12th Confederate Minutemen *17th Confederate Minutemen Rotary Air Wing *45th Confederate Mechanized Minutemen Category:Gears of War: Dark Horse Category:Rebuilt Dreams